Lighthouse Management expands into IT and biotech, hires new managers

Lighthouse Management Group Inc. is capitalizing on the job needs of the hot IT and biotech markets by expanding its agency.

The six-year-old company — with divisions devoted to hiring in the accounting, finance, business support and management fields — has added two new departments. One specializes in IT, the other in the research sector that focuses on biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

Three former managers from staffing industry giant, Menlo Park-based Robert Half International Inc., were brought in to head up the new departments.

Chris Haro and Jason Lammers will be managing directors in the new IT division, and Maurice Little will be the managing partner in Lighthouse’s research department. Haro was the former director of technology at Robert Half. Lammers was a market manager overseeing multiple divisions at Robert Half, and Little was a division director at Robert Half’s technology department.

Another managing partner, Dan McGowan, has also joined Lighthouse’s research department. Recently, he helped establish the West Coast office of Randstad Holding, a staffing company based in The Netherlands.

Song Woo, president and CEO of Lighthouse, plans to generate his firm’s future growth by tapping into an increase in demand for such jobs as software developers, system administrators and network engineers in the tech sector. Woo sees these new departments as key to helping generate this growth.

Lighthouse’s revenue grew to $8 million for the fiscal year ending June 30 from $7 million the year before.

Woo said his brand new managers, with many years of experience in the field, have hit the ground running, already having placed some clients.

“I had dabbled in these areas before, but there is such tremendous demand today,” Woo said of establishing the IT and research departments.

He declined to speculate on a specific number of jobs being generated in these career areas throughout the Bay Area, but said the unemployment rate in the information technology field nationally is just over 3 percent, compared to an overall jobless rate of more than 9 percent. McGowan said there will be more than 200 temporary and permanent jobs generated in his research specialty area around the Bay Area over the next year, adding that is a conservative estimate.

Software developers, system administrators and network engineers in the tech sector have starting salaries between from $80,000 to $120,000. Biotech-related jobs — clinical research associates, drug safety associates and biostatisticians — can earn between $90,000 to $140,000 annually.

McGowan said his new employer is well-situated at the heart of the valley.

“This is a hotbed of innovation,” he said. “Companies are moving here to be close to the talent and tap into their creativity.”

Woo said about 80 percent of his company’s job placements are in temporary or consulting jobs, with the remainder direct hire permanent positions. His company has from 250 to 300 clients annually.